Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-08-25

LeWcS, Dtl.y tIlc lOilcWlliS liISNIlptlOl
is pointed out to summer visitors:
Here rest the remains OF Captain James .
Drew, who commanded his Britannia :
Majesty's sloop-of-war De Braak, in .
which he lost his life when she foun-
dered at the Capes of Delaware the 10th .
of June, 1898. He was beloved for his :,
virtues and admired for his bravery. :.
His affeetionate relict has erected this
monument to perpetuate his memory. ::
This epitaph, not unlike many 9th
ers, fails to tell the truth as history
has revealed it, for Captain Drew die
not command His Britanic Majesty's
sloop-of-war when he lost his life al
the capes, but was on privateering
cruise, which was but little removed
from piracy itself. England was cop.
ing with Napoleon both on land
and water ut that time, and
George HI. was in dire distress for
money. Hence he granted letters OF
marque and reprisal to all that asked
tor them. James Drew, who belonged
to a bold but impecunious family OF
Irish sailors, secured such letters in
January. 1875, and promptly sailed
for the Spanish main on the brig De
Braak, which was equipped with a
dozen brass cannon and manned by
thirty-eight officers and men.
On May 25th the De Braak appeared
off Cape Henlopen, having in tow the
Spanish galleon La Plate. She was
bound for Halifax, the captain told
Pilot Andrew Allen, of Lewes, who
had been taken on board from the
pilot boat Friendship, but was con-
strained to come here for water. The
captain was in a hilarious mood. He
had had good luck, he said, and the
pilot must drink to his health. But
a storm was brewing in the south
west. Ominous cloud were looming
up behind Rehobeth, and SO, while
the captain had gone down into the
cabin for another bumper, Pilot Allen
ordered the light sails clewed up.
When the captain returned to the
deck and noted what had been done
he ordered the sails sheeted home
again, and turning to Allen with an
oath, said: "You look out for the
bottom and I'll look out for the
spars."
The De Braak was then rounding
Henlopell. A minute later she was
brought to and boat lowered to al
low her captain to go ashore. Several
sailors had dropped into the boat, and
Captain Drew was about to step down
when a furious gust of wind struck
the sloop, threw her on her beam
ends, and the portfolios being open,
she filled and sank instantly. Pilot
Allen sprank from the De Braak's
deck into the boat and broke his leg,
but he lived many years afterward to
tell this tragic story of the De Braak's
disaster. Captain Drew, his lieu
tenants, and thirty-eight men, includ-
ing fifteen prisoners taken from the
La Plate, went to the bottom. Twenty
five men were picked up alive by
other boats. The rescued men be-
moaned the loss of the countless
treasure of gold and silver and dia-
monds that had gone down in the De
Braak. They said that they had
taken two Spanish galleons with mill
lions of dollars worth of precious
metals, bound from Peru and Mexico
for Spain. They paid their bills in
half doubloons, of which they said
they had many caskets full in the
hold of the De Braak.
The efforts to locate and recover this
lost treasure have been many and be-
gan seventy-five years ago. 1t is in
the memory of some of our old people
that about the date of our second war
with England an English frigate and a
sloop came here and tried to raise the
De Braak. 1t is also said that this fri
gate "bridled the wreck with its stout
est hawsers and never budged her."
Modern divers and suction engines
hope to have better luck. The story
of the effort goes that about 1905 Gill
bert McCrackin, the chum of Pilot
Allen, in company with his son
Henry, "set the bearing of the wreck
for the purpose of aiding some future
effort" These bearings were, of
course, faithfully recorded, and the
document is in the possession OF
grandson of one of them.
For the purpose of securing this
sunken treasure, the International
Submarine company, of Philadelphia,
was formed some years ago. The bulk
OF its stock is owned at present by DIR.
Samuel Pancoast, of Philadelphia,
gentleman about seventy years old,
who is very sanguine of finding the
De Braak and her valuable freight.
The schooner Orr, after much pre-
paration, was on the first of the month
brought down from Philadelphia by
the tug Startle. 1t had working
force OF ten men, under command of
the doctor, pumping apparatus and
couple of expert divers. Everything
then was in readiness to begin work
as the doctor had located the wreck to
his own satisfaction in the mouth OF
Delaware Bay. The bottom is covered
with semi-soft blue clay and ooze
everywhere, except where ten-foot
mound of sand has collected, covering
an area of 1OOx50 feet lying lengthwise
from cape to cape. This is the mound
of record. On it was found dumb
buoy, made of an ordinary nail keg,
anchored by galganized wire, and
bit of "pig." Over the mound
the water is about sixty feet deep,
and this buoy hoated about ten feet
below the surface of the sea.
The divers have been at work on the
De Braak's grave q great deal of late.
What have. they found? Handfuls of
decayed wood. The washer is being
industriously worked this week, and
the mound has been penetrated to a
depth of half dozen feet all over.
Now powerful suction pump will be
put to work and will deposit the
woody sand ON the deck OF the Orr,
where the doctor will sieve it care
fully.
The doctor says the golden treasures
were, when last seen, snugly packed
up in heavy oaken iron-bound boxes
about three feet each way To remove
these the doctor has large steam
crane aboard. When the vessel sank
she had full armament of heavy
guns. These will be presented to the
Society of the Cincinnati. In fact,
the final disposition of everything